Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-07-20

3
sufficient time to prepare for death,
the prisoners should be put to DEATH"
Within an hour all three were swing
ing at the yard arms.
CONFESSION AND EXECUTION.
The testimony is overwhelming
that Spencer on the morning of his
execution, and even on the day be-
fore, fully confessed his intended
crime, and that Small made a like
confession. But Spencer died pro-
testing Cromwell's innocence and
Small said nothing to implicate him.
Cromwell, too, maintained his inno-
cence to the last. There is not one
title of evidence against this unfor-
tunate man developed in all the forty
days of testimony before the court.
He was simply hanged on general
principles. He was first-class sail
or, was intimate with Spencer, had
been heard to curse the captain and
the ship, aside, was believed to have
been SLAYER or a pirate before, and
the captain got it into his head that
he was the soul of the mutiny and
Spencer his tool.
Spencer asked for more time to
prepare for death, and, this denied,
begged to be shot. The taunting OF
the dying man with which Macken-
zie was charged was in saying to
him when he begged for time and
life that "if he was taken home his
fathers political influence would
save him, and therefore it was better
to hang him now." Mackenzie ex-
planned to the court-martial that he
simply said to him that "his father
would be better served if he was
now hanged instead of being brought
home"-a distinction hard to under
stand. The men were hanged in
irons. Caps were drawn over their
eyes. None showed signs Of weak
ness when the time arrived. Two
whips were rugged to the starboard
yard arm for Cromwell and Small
and one to the port for Spencer, all
manned by the entire ships compa-
ny, with the officers each with a
brace of pistols ready to shoot at the
first man who failed to pull. The
flag was ran to the masthead, a gun
fired and in an instant the three men
were chock-a-block, spinning and
writhing in their death agonies.
Then Captain Mackenzie delivered
an oration on the Nervousness of mu-
tiny, after which he called for three
cheers for the flag, which the cowed
crew gave with will, and were then
piped down to dinner. The bodies
swung aloft for an hour and were
then lowered and buried at sundoWn.
The remains of Cromwell and Small
were seWed in their hammocks with
shot at their feet. A coffin was i'm
provised for Spencer out of two mems
chests, and this loaded with shot was
with that of the other two launched
into the sea.
HANGED WITHOUT A TRIAL.
The main charges upon which
Mackenzie was tried before a court
NATAL was that of the murder Of
these three men, based upon the un-
denied fact that they were never fur.
nished with any charges or specifi'
cation of crime, nor any investiga.
tion as to their guilt made to their
prisoner. The only answer to this
and the one that caused the acquittal
of Mackenzie, was that the intend.
ed mutiny was proved by the con.
fession of Spencer and Small; that
how far it had spread among the
crew it was impossible to determine
and that the only hope for the safety
of the ship was the terror inflicted
upon the other conspirators by the
speedy death of the principals, and
this seems to have overcome in the
minds of the court-martial the effects
of the fact that the brig, when the
execution took place, was within but
a few days sail of home, and that
four seamen who were put under ar.
rest on the day Of the execution were
brought home and then discharged
without trial.
James Fennimore Cooper, the his
torian of the United States Navy
ends a long and exhaustive but rath.
er tedious review of the court-mar.
tial in these words, alluding to the
execution : "God alone can say how
far a selfish feeling was mixed uE
with the mistakes of a terrible trans
action. The act was unquestionably
one of high moral courage, one oi
the basest cowardice, one of deeI
guilt or one of lamentable deficiency
of Judgment"
Mackenzie, after distinguishing
himself in the navy during the wal
with Mexico, returned to his coun'
try seat in Tarrytown, New York
where he broke his neck by q fall
from his horse in 1S48. He was a
brother of John Slidell, who, with
Mason, of Virginia, represented the
Confederacy in France during the
war of the rebellion. The brig Som
erS was lost during a storm, with
nearly all on board, off Vera Cruz ir
184S.